Baja California Railroad has made little progress on rehabilitating the so-called Desert Line since the business took over the lease to operate the 70-mile stretch of track from Tecate to Plaster City more than two years ago.

Officials with the Tijuana-based company said last year that they expected to complete a $60-million overhaul of the line on everything from railroad tracks to dozens of crumbling tunnels and bridges by 2020.

However, at a recent meeting with the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System’s top brass, a spokesman for the rail company said Baja Rail had yet to break ground on the project or secure approval for a key cross-border inspection facility near Campo.

Baja Rail pays MTS $1 million a year for the right to operate the agency’s line.

Company officials have said for more than a year that they need U.S. Customs and Border Protection to provide guidance on the project. Specifically, they have said that to proceed they have to know whether the federal agency will require the rail company to build two inspections facilities, one on each side of the border, or allowed it to construct a joint complex in Mexico.

“We have already presented CBP different projects for them to give us some feedback,” said Jorge Izquierdo, spokesman for Baja Rail. “They are still pushing for separate facilities, but we haven’t got anything official on the project.”

Izquierdo suggested at the meeting with MTS officials last week that the recent government shutdown in the U.S., as well as Mexico’s recent presidential election, may have slowed the overall process.

However, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said on Wednesday that the agency had yet to receive a formal proposal from Baja Rail, issuing this statement:

“CBP officials have coordinated with the project sponsor to provide information about CBP requirements at an official border crossing into the U.S. and other necessary information … At this time, it would be premature to comment further as CBP has not received an official proposal for the project from the sponsor.”

The Desert Line is part of the 148-mile so-called Impossible Railroad stretching from San Diego’s Pacific Coast into Tijuana and out to Imperial County through perilous desert cliffs. The famous entrepreneur John D. Spreckels built the rail line roughly a century ago and it has been plagued by fire, floods and other calamities ever since.

The last time cargo was transported along the desert line was in 2008 when MTS leased the line to a company called Carrizo Gorge Railway. The route was subsequently embargoed pending tunnel and bridge rehabilitation.

The company isn’t required under its lease with MTS to meet any benchmarks for rehabilitating the Desert Line until the inspection facilities are in place. The company has so far paid the transit agency $2 million for the right to operate the line.

MTS spokesman Rob Schupp said that Baja Rail is currently undergoing extensive environmental review in connection with the potential inspection sites.

“The Impossible Railroad is a well-earned moniker, but even if progress is slow, there has been more progress to establish a bi-national railroad since Baja Rail took over than over the previous 100 years,” he said.

Baja Rail has controlled the 44-mile section of the Impossible Railroad between Tijuana and Tecate under a concession with the Mexican government since 2012. Officials said they have invested roughly $20 million, including public funding, to upgrade the short line, which imports goods from San Diego but has no export business.

The company says it plans to provide a cost-effective alternative to freight trucks once the Desert Line is overhauled and it can access eastern markets without having to go through the Los Angeles region.

The previous leaseholder of the Desert Line, Pacific Imperial Railroad, made no progress on overhauling line and was thrust into bankruptcy with unsecured debt of more than $7 million. Over roughly four years, the company routinely missed deadlines imposed by MTS and racked up numerous lawsuits by investors alleging the company defrauded them.